IV
To the servant of Milcho ’twas said
To pass o’er the seas and the plain;
Then stood angel Victor on rock,
And his footprints to this day remain.
V
Departed Saint Patrick o’er Alps—
On his way all successful he hies;
And with German remained in the South
’Neath Letavia’s wide-spreading skies.
VI
In the isles of the Tyrrhenian sea
Saint Patrick some period awaits,
And as canon with German he reads,
As his history still to us states
VII
To Hibernia Saint Patrick returned,
By visions from angels induced;
For visions to him appeared oft,
And his mind to subjection reduced.
VIII
Soul-saving was Patrick’s intent,
For ’twas to far Foclut’s dark flood;
He had heard the entreaty and wail
Of children in Foclut’s far woods.
IX
For asked they the saint to make haste
And Letavia’s wide lands desert,
That from error’s dark ways Eire’s men
He might in life’s pathways direct.
X
Foretold Eire’s seers years of peace,
Which were to remain through all time;
But the grandeurs of Tara the proud
Were to vanish in dust, as earth’s slime.
XI
To Leary, the monarch, Druids told
Of the advent of Patrick the saint;
And their visions were true, as we know
From the facts which his histories paint.
XII
Renowned was Saint Patrick through life,
And of error he was a dire foe;
Hence for ever his name shall be grand
Among the nations, as ages shall flow.
XIII
The Apocalypse sang he, and hymns,
And three fifty full psalms, day by day;
He instructed and praised and baptized,
And all time he continued to pray.
XIV
Nor could any cold e’er prevent
That he stayed in the water o’er nights;
And to gain the grand kingdom of heaven,
Through the day he used preach on the heights.